Things are as they are, not as they should be!

Just Married, Please Excuse

Title :  Just Married, Please Excusejust_married_please_excuse
Author : Yashodhara Lal
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN : 978-93-5029-227-3
Number of Pages : 264
Price [INR] : 199
Genre: Fiction

Synopsis : Yashodhara, a temperamental IIM graduate joins a MNC as a trainee. 3 months of dating and Vijay, 7 years senior to her, proposes marriage to her. After initial doubts of 23 being too young to get married and that she still needs to explore the thrills and adventures of the beautiful decade, the twenties, she says , ‘Yes’!!The young couple adjusts to married life with Yashodhara’s temper tantrums and Vijay’s foot in mouth syndrome. With the unplanned arrival of a baby, all hell breaks loose in the family as the couple start thinking that does the basic differences in their personalities mean that they are simply incompatible? Will they manage to agree in anything??

Review : When I saw the the following on the cover page of this book…

  • Just Married, Please Excuse
  • Opposites Attract – Trouble
  • Caution! Marriage Ahead!

…I knew that I had to read this book immediately to know the reasons, explanations, logics and mystery behind all these ‘profound’ statements!

I started reading this book in the afternoon and with a couple of work breaks, finished the book by midnight! And, boy! at the end of it, I had this happy smile plastered all over my face. Just Married, Please excuse is a hilarious account of Yashodhara and Vijay’s life which I could relate to my married life on many occasions.

The couple has different styles of shopping, different thoughts on bringing up a child, different eating habits (the wife is non-vegetarian while the husband eats only chicken nuggets with beer and eggs for breakfast), different upbringing (one coming from a modern family and the other one from a traditional one)… And with so many differences between them, do the opposites still attract? No! they attack!! The incidents depicting all these are narrated in details which are fun to read and also I couldn’t help nodding my head in agreement with their arguments and counter arguments, emotions and outbursts as they sounded very familiar.

The book has a lot of hilarious moments… like the Yashodhara-Reema and Vijay-Reema episode with the counsellor or the Tsunami incident or their understanding of the five point two lakh vis-a-vis fifty two lakhs as the price for the land… however one incident which I found a bit difficult to digest was when Y (yeah, that’s how she is called by the husband ‘V’!) is looking for ‘sticky stuff we make rotis with’! I mean, it’s understandable that Y is not domestically inclined and has never cooked but not knowing that you have to make dough from the flour and you don’t get it ready made (at least in the present times) is hard to believe!

A statement from Yashodhara’s mother in law, “ Ladne ki kya baat hain? Arrey, kabhi main maan jaati hoon, kabhi wo maan jaate hain” is so simple and profound which should be applied by every married couple! It sure is a wonderful take-away from this book.

The book is written in the ‘way you talk’ style and use of Hinglish language makes it an interesting and enjoyable read.

The book is a must read, if you are…

  • newly married
  • a new parent
  • looking for some fun-humour laced reading!

Rating : 4/5
The review is part of IndiBlogger / HarperCollins Book Review initiative.

31 Responses

  1. Had found the book amusing and could relate to it. In fact I have a friend who would totally fit into this book 🙂 But I didn’t really like the conventional ending of a misunderstanding (remember the message thing?) and all that stuff!

  2. Shilpa,

    Read 2 posts now. How is KG’s eye now? Sagar Ratna is one of good eating places and quite within pocket too. Next time you come to Delhi, please do spare some time to meet. My id is in my profile. You have tempted me to read this book, even after almost 41 years of married life we still have some differences at times.

    Take care

    1. Thank you Sir, KG is good, infact was better after the rest at Sagar Ratna! 🙂
      I like food at Sagar Ratna too!
      Definitely… would love to meet you!
      Yes, you must read, “Just Married, Pls excuse… am sure it will take you down the memory lane!! 🙂

  3. Thanks for the review, much appreciate 🙂 – so glad you enjoyed it!

    Also, I noticed thanks to your blog for the first time that blogspot allows individual replies to comments! Must go and figure that out on my own blog now – :-)…thanks!

    1. I’m back. My extensive five minutes of research on the subject of enabling replies to specific comments have failed to clue me in. You think you could let me know on yashodhara dot lal at gmail dot com how to find this option?

      This is great! I love the idea of comments. What a perfect way to reveal more and more of my ignorance to the public at large!

    2. Hi Yashodhara! Glad to see you here! It was my pleasure to read such interesting, fun and hilarious work! 🙂

      Regarding this comment format in blogger, what you need to do is…
      In Blogger, switch to new blogger interface.
      Go to Settings – then Posts & Comments – Select Embedded Comments. It will be done. 🙂
      In case of any query, would be happy to help!

      LOL @ extensive 5 min research! :))

  4. Opposites attract … trouble is what I loved most and got me into reading the book too.

    And you are right about the take-away 🙂 Like another one I remember, about the ‘preferences and demands’ thingy 🙂

    1. Yess… that sure piqued my interest too!
      Agree absolutely.. stating what you would like as preferences and not demands makes a BIG difference to the spouse and is an important take-away!

  5. Seems like a great book Shilpa. I think almost every couple goes through the same problems.

    And opposites attract because, you will the spaces in each other’s lives 🙂

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